Hanged Man
Background Born into the dawn of the age of reform to an old family tradition without the true means to perpetuate it, Leopold Hapsburg grew to be a young scamp of society. He was a dandy of the first class, learning the sword to earn his scars in society turned over on its ear by religion. When not out drinking with his hothead friends or gambling away the little of the family funds left to him, he was busy selling off bits of the household to the burghers for more loans to maintain the pretense of money in hand. At seventeen he was ready to join the ranks of the army on the side of God, and a decent paymaster, when he came across a mob looking for food after looting his home. The estate wasn't much. The old man had died too quickly, and there had been far too little food for such a big place. And along came this whelp of a dandy in a new jacket and carrying a sword of all things. Rag bound hands adjusted their grip on pitchforks and hammers as they caught him just getting down to check his father. They beat him. Soundly. They tossed a rope over the branch he'd climbed as a boy, stood him on his horse underneath and let him watch as the house burned. One sick member fetched a bucket of water and put it just out of reach of the horse. Leopold's eyes burned down at the man in unquenched rage as the horse took steps and finally walked out from beneath him. The men were Spanish, mercenaries looking for additions to their pay. They were also supposed to have been on his side. It was all grey when his eyes opened again. He sat up to a grey world and thought it was hell. He was covered in a layer of ash from the fires. The wars claimed him like he was already dead, after all what could harm a hanged man ? That was the only thing that stayed put, although is he had a really bad night he would remember the beating and would wake with yellowing bruises all over. Wearing a high necked coat, he joined a Prussian mercenary unit and went anywhere he could kill Spaniards for years. As time went on, the company changed out new faces for old. Some came to wonder at his face unchanged. The scars he wore were those of a young man. He lost neither eye nor fingers and seemed to be the devil's own in the charge. He left in the thick of battle and found other wars, other ways to power. He stole the contents of the Bavarian prince's royal coach and hid half deep in the mountains. The other half he smuggled down to Italy and turned it into a fortune by never quite losing a duel -and betting heavily on dangerous races. He learned to move into and out of the cities as a ghost, but invested heavily in long term deals. Many of them played out well, especially when around 1740 he became aware of Tarot. He joined and left after twenty years without meeting The Emperor or revealing his secret. The first time. Later, he was found to be behind many of the deals which were in the best interests of Tarot, so they brought him into the fold. Personality and Motivations Been there. Done that. Oh hello a new twist on an old favorite will bring the light to his eyes... for a while. And then it is ho hum again. He isn't in this to take over the world, but to experience it, preferably at the end of a pipe or in a bottle. Leopold is not stupid, he just has not applied anything but his skills to pick up languages. He does not sound like a Hollywood vampire, for example, but he doesn't speak in slang either. He is always soft-spoken and slightly hurt looking when people have the same reactions over and over. As a joke, he sometimes introduces himself as "Dorian Gray". Admittedly, he's been making this joke fewer and fewer times as the years have passed, as most people in the modern day seem to never have heard of that novel much to Leopold's utter disgust. Its for this reason that he curses the loss of literary culture in the modern world. And he swears to almighty God that the next person who responds "Oh, like in that Sean Connery movie?" is going to meet the business end of his sword. Where the Emperor occasionally likes to relive certain moments in time, Leopold would prefer to forget if he could. Still of the looks of a youngish man after all this time, he parties with the best and sometimes he is penniless and healing by morning. Other times, he scores. In the long run, even statistics will favor the longer lived players. Quote Oh, not you again." Powers and Abilities Leopold's body will not quit. He doesn't dodges bullets or survive car crashes. He takes the injury, the bleeding stops, he gets up (notably irritated) and continues on his way. Once he was blasted apart in an car explosion. The bloody paths of limbs working their way back toward the wrack of the body was nothing like seeing the hands set the head back on the neck and reform connection there. Leopold's body is at the peak of human perfection in look and function. He would be truly glorious looking as well, if not for a dueling scar along the left cheek and of course the ragged welt of scar around his neck from the hanging. That too reforms every time he does. He can speak any tongue which he studies for a little while, and even that is as nothing for he has traveled extensively and remembers the languages he is exposed to. Leopold can recall any scene he has observed in uncanny detail - all the way back to the night he was hung. He has added modern training in martial arts of the street to his cavalry training and fencing. Guns he has never deigned to learn more than to point, which he has as much natural aptitude as he feels he needs. The money he has stolen and earned, invested and reinvested countless times makes him very wealthy and being able to live among the wealthy makes him well connected. Appearance The Hanged Man wears a style that seems to hint at lacy cravats and sleeves combined with modern leather garments without going gothic. (He assumed this style after seeing the movie "The Queen of the Damned", starring actor Stewart Townsend... when he later saw Townsend play Dorian Gray, he fell into the giggles). His hair is slightly long, but not out of style in these times. He has tried various tattoos and piercings but they fade and heal too soon for them to be more than a momentary diversion. He makes no effort to hide his identity. Category:Characters Category:Austrian Characters Category:Villains Category:Austrian Villains Category:Male Characters Category:Male Villains Category:Immortals Category:Martial Artists Category:Tarot Villains